China stock market turmoil and growth slowdown

After more than doubling over the preceding year on a wave of retail speculation and margin lending, Chinese stock markets lost roughly a third of their value between June and August 2015, prompting an unprecedented state intervention that suspended trading in many stocks and directed state-linked funds to buy shares. A surprise devaluation of the yuan in August 2015 added to fears of a sharper slowdown and triggered capital outflows and a further bout of global market volatility in early 2016. The turmoil coincided with — and partly reflected — a broader, deliberate shift in Chinese growth from the roughly 10% annual pace of the 2000s toward a more moderate, consumption- and services-led model, sometimes described by officials as the 'new normal.'